Minnie might be a thoroughly modern rodent, and Mickey might be a typical male when it comes to relationships, but Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor-Allwine, the people who supply the voices, are very much the traditionalists. They've been married for 2 1/2 years.

"Isn't it great?" Taylor-Allwine said.

The couple, who met when they first worked together in 1985, appeared Saturday as part of a lecture series sponsored by Stay Tooned, which specializes in animation artwork. They spoke to more than 500 adults and children for more than an hour, and signed autographs afterward.

The Allwines shared their experiences of working within the Disney system, presented brief video clips of their respective works, and also talked about voices that they did for other animated series. They also cracked up the audience whenever they lapsed into various characters and, by frequently expressing signs of intimacy toward each other, appeared to be more in love than their famous counterparts.

Carrying on the Disney tradition is a large responsibility, and it's one the Allwines willingly accept.

"It's awesome and it's very scary at the same time," said Allwine, who started supplying the voice of Mickey in 1977, and who is only the character's third official voice actor, with Disney himself being the first.

Taylor-Allwine told the audience, "That's the wonderful thing about our job. Can you imagine getting up in the morning and doing this?"